


The Ghibli Trip

by madammina



Category: Loveless
Genre: Gen, Kio is upset, Soubi has not seen movies, Studio Ghibli References, Yuiko goes to a museum, they all have fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madammina/pseuds/madammina
Summary: Yuiko has managed to luck into 3 tickets to the Ghibli Museum and can't take Ritsuka.  So she asks Soubi, and Kio invites himself.  Who knew a museum could make them all learn about eachother so much
Relationships: Agatsuma Soubi & Kaidou Kio, Hawatari Yuiko & Agatsuma Soubi, Hawatari Yuiko & Kaidou Kio
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	The Ghibli Trip

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Loveless Zine: Nameless. Actually I was the organizer and sole mod, though I got a LOT of help. It's been two weeks so now it's time to show anyone who didn't pick up the zine (or people who did!) the fun in the friendships of Loveless.

Yuiko held her phone in her hand, the tickets nearby on her desk. She tapped a message out.    
  
“I have three tickets to the Ghibli Museum and Ritsuka can’t come. T_T . Do you want to come, Soubi-san? You can explain the art!”    
  
She put the phone down on her desk and walked across her room over to her window. It was open and the early summer breeze was blowing in. She rested her head down and gazed out at the city ahead of her.    
  
_ Soubi, it’s been a minute, why haven’t you responded? _   
  
Barely had she thought that when the phone buzzed behind her. Yuiko dove through her stuffed animals on her bed and grabbed her phone.    
  
“Yes.” Soubi had written. There was an indication that he was typing. She grabbed a stuffed rabbit and scratched behind the ears. “My friend Kio is insisting on being our third.”   
  
“Of course! The more the merrier!” Yuiko typed back. “I can’t wait to see you this weekend! It will be so much fun!”    
***

Yuiko was the first to arrive, a good half an hour early. Other people were already lining up for their timeslot and she was not the only one who had picked the ticket booth with Totoro as their meeting spot. She gave a nervous grin to the stuffed animal and waited, fiddling with pulling her phone in and out of her bag. She didn’t know what Kio looked like, but if it was a friend of Soubi, then he had to be around the same age, right? Though then again, she met Soubi because of Ritsuka…    
  
“Yuiko-chan.”    
  
She turned and looked over. Soubi was as charming as always, though she wished she knew why he always wrapped up his neck like that. Still he had a nice smile, and somehow the glasses made him look cheerful. Next to him stood a man who must be his friend Kio. Kio looked to be about the same age as Soubi, with short hair, and so many piercings in his ear.    
  
“OH!” Kio said, hurrying over. “You look adorable! You’re Yuiko?”    
  
“Kio.” Soubi said, slightly annoyed.    
  
“Want me to take your picture?” Kio asked. 

Yuiko broke into a smile. “And then I can take yours!” she offered. 

Kio smiled back. “Sou-chan! I like her!” he exclaimed. He squeezed Soubi, then ran back over, pulling out his camera. Yuiko heard Soubi sighing but she didn’t pay attention as she and Kio began taking each other’s pictures in front of Totoro.    
  
“Oh, Sou-chan.” Kio turned to Soubi when they’d finished. “Do you want us to take your picture in front of Totoro?” He held up his camera and gave a grin. Yuiko mimicked Kio.    
  
“Who’s Totoro?” Soubi finally asked, his eyebrows furrowed in complete confusion. 

Kio almost dropped his camera as he gasped over-dramatically. “You… you… why?”   
  
“Why did you say you would come when I asked?” Yuiko added in, hurrying in front of Kio and leaning forward a bit to face him. 

Soubi blinked, confusion still on his face. “I thought it was a normal museum?” he explained slowly. “And you asked for my help explaining the art.”    
  
“That’s all?” Kio’s voice rose as his confusion mounted. “Sou-chan. We are ARTISTS. How…” He sighed, then turned to Yuiko with a grin. “Well. we’ll just have to fix this once we get inside!” Kio grabbed Soubi to drag him to the entrance. Yuiko skipped along beside them, the tickets in her hand.   
***

The tickets were accepted and the trio walked into a room covered with paintings of the Ghibli characters. Yuiko and Kio ran around, pointing and squealing at soot sprites and ships while Soubi followed distractedly.    
  
“Why are you getting excited over dust mites?” Soubi finally asked. Both turned to look at him, surprised, though Kio’s shocked expression seemed to be slightly exaggerated.    
  
“Soot sprites!” Yuiko answered with a squeal. “They live in old and abandoned houses and they are so cute!” Kio was nodding along with her.    
  
“Everything seems really… cute,” Soubi said as he looked up at the ceiling. Yuiko watched as he gazed at Ponyo running across the ocean. “Who’s that?”    
  
“Ponyo!” Yuiko half-sung. She began to run around, pointing out various other characters. “That’s Kaguya, and that’s Porco Rosso and that’s Chihiro and that’s San and Sofie and that’s Pazu and that’s Nautica and oh right I always forget Lupin isn’t on here-” She pouted.    
  
“Lupin?” Surprised, Soubi turned to look at Yuiko. “Isn’t that a bit too old for you?”    
  
“One of the Ghibli founders made ‘Castle of Caglistro’, Sou-chan,” Kio explained, putting his hand on Soubi’s shoulder. They both watched as Yuiko ran to look at something else.    
  
“Yuiko!” Kio said after a moment. Yuiko turned to look at him, her bag almost hitting another museum goer. “Do you want to do the movie first or later?”    
  
“Oh.” Yuiko frowned, considering it. “Let’s go do it now!”    
  
“Now?” Soubi turned again towards Kio. “Why now?”    
  
“You can only see the movie once per a visit.” Kio explained. Yuiko ran off in the direction of the theater. “It changes fairly often too.”    
  
“That seems unfair,” Soubi replied.    
  
“This museum is about experiencing,” Kio explained, as they walked into the room.   
***   
The film was called ‘House Hunting’. It was clearly aimed at younger children, with words popping on screen and onomatopoeia. Yuiko found Soubi was decently interested though. After the movie finished, the lights came up and the trio walked out. Yuiko hummed the theme from the film while Kio looked at the map.    
  


“I think Yuiko is just in the age range for the Catbus, but we could always go back to the main hall,” Kio muttered to himself. “Or we could see the workshop or we could eat…”    
  
“MAIN HALL!” Yuiko shouted eagerly and began to hurry across to the main area. Once the three of them got there, she ran across and around various wooden steps and platforms. Fans rotated slowly above the three stories as whirligigs mimicked the movement. Wooden posts were driven into the wall that were just too difficult for people to climb and stain glass windows of characters cast light over the hall while various wooden vehicles hid in the corners. For Yuiko, her squeals of delight was just one in the cacophony of the hall. There were a lot of kids Yuiko’s age or younger either zooming across the floor or finding hidey holes in wooden submarines. Add in various statues like the soot sprites enclosed in the wall and it had a feel of happy chaos. Both too big and old for the mass of children, Soubi and Kio found a bench with some sort of weird polar bear sitting on it.    
  
“Okay, tell me the truth,” Kio asked. “You really can’t be this ignorant.”    
  
“What do you mean?” Soubi replied, his eyes still on Yuiko.    
  
“Ghibli. Come on, everyone’s grown up at least KNOWING about it.” Kio waved his hand, and almost hit a young mother. “I don’t expect you to have seen them but I did the math. Totoro came out when you were six. You are telling me you have no memory of Totoro? Or how Spirited Away is the highest-grossing movie in Japan? Kiki and Kaguya HAVE to have come up in class at some point.”    
  
Kio watched as Soubi’s face grew more and more confused.    
  
“Oh, you  _ are  _ serious.” Kio’s smile dropped. “I thought it was something you were doing to make Yuiko happy.”    
  
“The first time I saw a movie in quite a while was when you had me watch that horror movie about the girl in the well,” Soubi said in a flat tone. “I still don’t know why.”    
  
Kio paled. “Oh, that is not… Why didn’t you tell me that was your first movie?” Kio asked. “That is… wow.” He put his head in his hands. “Okay. Uh, we are having more movie nights. And I think I’m going to sign you up for an art course on animated movies.”    
  
“Only if you come too.” Soubi turned to look at him.    
  
“Of course I’m coming too.” Kio sighed. “I know that you have a lot you are not telling me, ignoring everything with Semei, but you need to try to be more human. For Yuiko and Ritsuka’s sake, at least.” He paused. “Where IS Yuiko?”   
  
Soubi turned to point, but she had disappeared from where she had been by some wooden submarine.    
  
“Yuiko?” Soubi stood up. Kio followed. “Yuiko-chan?”    
  
“It’s not that big,” Kio muttered as he looked around. “Yuiko-chan?”    
  
“OVER HERE!” Yuiko’s voice came from some wooden airplane that was in the corner. “I’m stuck.”    
  
Kio worked very hard to keep his face straight as Soubi walked over and worked on pulling Yuiko out of the airplane’s cockpit. Kio had to hold onto Yuiko’s bag and it took some squirming, but she managed to squeak out after a minute or so.    
  
“Want to get lunch?” Soubi asked as a slightly distressed Yuiko clung to his arm.    
  
“Yes please.” Yuiko murmured into Soubi’s shirt.   
***

There was a line for lunch, but Yuiko didn’t mind. Kio volunteered to hold their spot, and Soubi got all three of them ice cream while they waited. Yuiko began to run around the roof, and Soubi followed. 

  
“Wait!” she called out and gave Soubi her ice cream. Giggling, she ran down to a water pump and began to pump it.    
  
“You know, people used to call that chores,” Soubi teased her gently.   
  
“I know.” She grinned at him. “But it’s fun to think about. Didn’t you ever read books about kids who did this and wonder what it was like?”    
  
“I don’t know,” Soubi replied. “Your ice cream is melting.” He held it out and Yuiko scrambled up the rocks to get it.    
  
The roof was a garden, surrounded by tall grass and wild flowers that grew along roadsides and were indistinguishable from weeds. Under the summer sun, Yuiko could smell the plants and dirt while the sounds of the city seemed so far away.    
  
“What’s the robot from?” Soubi asked. He pointed to a nearby ten foot tall humanoid robot that loomed over the garden with his free hand. “It’s a fun shape.”   
  
“La Puta, Castle in the sky,” Yuiko replied. “I like Totoro the best though.”    
  
“The cat fox bird thing at the gate?” Soubi asked, resting comfortably on a bench, gazing out at the grass.    
  
“Yeah.” Yuiko finished her ice cream drippings. “It kind of made me hate that I was a city kid. Mei and Satsuki got to run around and play and meet forest spirits and ride in the cat bus. I was Mei’s age when I saw it for the first time. I don’t get any of that in the city.” She looked over the organized mess of the roof’s garden. “This is the closest I get to it.”    
  
“Then why do you like it?” Soubi asked, eating his ice cream. “If it’s nothing you can have.”    
  
Yuiko smiled as she looked back at Soubi. “Because I still could.”    
  
At this point, Soubi’s phone buzzed. He checked it. “Kio’s texting. We’re going to be ready in a few minutes.”    
  
****

Yuiko dug into her Omurarice, feeling very grown up with some tea next to her. Kio had a latte with a fish girl drawn on top, and was eating curry. Soubi had opted for the sandwich, and some iced tea.    
  
“I haven’t seen a lot of art,” Soubi remarked as he delicately ate. “Isn’t this a museum?”   
  
“We can do that after dessert!” Yuiko said. “The exhibit this time is for how they turned sketches into animation cells into animation” She dug back into her rice. “I’m looking forward to it. Kiki on the hill was always a nice scene for me.”    
  
“Kiki’s a witch,” Kio explained. Soubi made an understanding noise. 

“Also I’m looking forward to that desert,” Yuiko said cheefully as she finished up. “I want the parfait!”    
  
“It does look good,” Soubi admitted. “What do you think, Kio?”    
  
Kio had a look of absolute delight on his face as he looked at the two of them. “The strawberry shortcake,” Kio said, in absolute seriousness. “And you, Sou-chan, are getting Kiki’s chocolate cake.”    
  
“Okay.” Soubi agreed amicably, the chocolate cake of the witch having no real effect on him.    
***

They found their way into the hall. Both Yuiko and Kio glanced back to watch as Soubi stopped mid-step.   
  
“How--” Soubi started to say, staring at the animation cell on the wall. It was from Ponyo, and showed how Ponyo running on the waves turned from a quick sketch to animation. Next to it was a small TV running a loop of Ponyo running.    
  
A less active one next to it was Kiki, staring at the sky.    
  
“Ooh, they got the club scene from Porco Rosso, and even some Cat Returns and Kaguya!” Kio said from his place by the other wall. In the middle of the hall was rows upon rows of desks, clearly for the animators. “It’s not just Miyazaki, so it’s nice when they reflect that.”    
  
Soubi was still enraptured by the Ponyo showcase.   
  
“Wait till he sees the food,” Kio whispered to Yuiko, who had wandered over by him. She giggled. “SOU-CHAN!”    
  
Soubi started and turned around, his eyes in an artist’s half-glassy furor.    
  
“Yes?” he finally forced himself to say.   
  
“The rain scene from Totoro is over this way,” Yuiko said as she walked over to him. She grabbed his hand and began to pull him in a direction farther down the exhibit. “Come on, let me show you the umbrellas.”    
  
“Oh… Okay,” Soubi managed to say. Yuiko held on tight to his hands as she led him away, down the hall.    
  
The scene of Totoro under the umbrella had quite a few other sketches. For a while, there was only going to be one girl, not sisters. So as a result, both versions of the sketch were shown and then piece by piece more was added until you got to the video softly looping.    
  
“I don’t have sisters,” Yuiko said softly. “It’s just me. It would be nice to have them sometime.”    
  
“Well,” Kio said. “You got me as a brother now! And Soubi too, as soon as he manages to pull himself away.”    
  
They both turned to Soubi. He muttered frantically about “how did they make it so peaceful?”   
  
“Good day?” Kio asked.   
  
“Great day!” Yuiko agreed.    
  
“I don’t think you’ll make it to the catbus before the museum closes.”   
  
“I know.” she said with a smile.    
  
****

Soubi finished up his piece for the weekend and began to head back to his apartment. Kio had left early, something about research, and with the weekend ahead of him, Soubi was debating on what to do. Also, dinner. He needed to eat.   
  
As he got to his apartment, he opened up the door.   
  
“SURPRISE!” Kio, Yuiko, Natsuo, Yoji, and Ritsuka were there behind the door.   
  
“What are you doing?” Soubi asked. Yuiko and Ritsuka grabbed him and pulled him inside.   
  
“Movie night!” Kio said, before hurrying back to the stove. “Cagliostro or Totoro?”    
  
“Why didn’t you tell me you’ve never seen a movie?” Yuiko pouted. The other kids seem to agree with her.   
  
“It… never came up?” Soubi replied. But the kids were pushing him again, to his seat in front of the TV.    
  
“Just pick!” Yuiko said, putting the DVD cases in front of him. “We have dinner and popcorn and soda and--”   
  
“Totoro first,” Soubi said quickly. Yuiko lit up. “Then Cagliostro.”    
  
“You won’t regret it,” Yuiko promised him, and put in the DVD. 


End file.
